Lawro Predicts - Latics v Newcastle

Former Liverpool defender and current Match of the Day pundit Mark 'Lawro` Lawrenson has done his weekly round of predictions for the BBC and he is predicting that the Boxing Day Premier League clash between Wigan Athletic and Newcastle United at the DW Stadium will end in a draw, let`s see what his reasons are:

Wigan v Newcastle

You look at Wigan and think they might get rolled over but they produced another impressive comeback against Arsenal to get a draw on Wednesday and they have got a little bit more about them than I thought they had at the start of the season.

I saw the Latics as a club that brings in players from, say, South America and improves them before selling them on which can mean you end up with one or two mercenaries but you look at them now and there is obviously a strong team spirit there. Gary Caldwell's return from a thigh injury has obviously helped them as well.

They do have a go, and they have match-winners. Charles N'Zogbia will be suspended after getting himself sent off against the Gunners but Hugo Rodallega and Tom Cleverley are turning into really good players.

Following defeats against Manchester City and Tottenham, Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has now lost two out of three games since he took charge and we will hear more rumbles of discontent from Magpies fans if they are beaten again here.

The important thing for Wigan will be whether they can deal with Andy Carroll but I think there will be a few goals in this game anyway.

Prediction: 2-2

I`m going for a home win with this one, we might be missing Charles N`Zogbia but Newcastle have Andy Carroll out with a thigh strain and he will be a big loss to them, 2-0 Latics win for me.

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A win today would mean so much - 3 points of course, but it would also mean Latics move up to 12th in the league to finally start shaking off the bottom 3. It would also mean 5 games unbeaten, therefore showing some consistency that we are famed for not having. It would be great for team morale too - we would be unbeaten at home since September.
So... prediction... I'm still unsure about us, and would not be surprised to see us lose 0-1. Having said that, if we play as we can, then maybe it's about time we gave someone a good hiding, so maybe a 3 or 4-0 is on the cards?...